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"Women’s Health"
We provide multiple brief updates about the state of the Covid-19 pandemic, the vaccines, the treatments or lack thereof, how you isolate, and what the future holds. Stay the course. Keep your guard up. Get your flu shot. We are in this for a long time.
We will start our flu clinics on Tuesday, September 29. Clinics will be offered Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and some Friday mornings through the end of October, or even early November as needed, for everyone to get the flu vaccine. A signup calendar will be active on our website within a few days. Further instructions will follow as well.
We are still in the midst of a pandemic that has subsided in Massachusetts but is still very much with us and could easily rebound. We need to remain vigilant in our self care. No real good news. US infections and deaths are at high levels and increasing. An effective and proven vaccine is not realistic until next year and then will take many months to distribute. Keep up your careful self care. This is depressing but real.
We have started scheduling comprehensive visits (“checkups”) for members in the office. Checkups will be divided into two parts, with video discussion one day and in-office physical exam and completion the subsequent day. This will allow thorough and effective comprehensive exams that will be safer by restricting in time spent in closed exam rooms. In addition we have detailed phone prescreening for Covid-19 and active virus point-of-care testing on arrival at the office to protect all of us.
We will have flu clinics for all members in October with drive up vaccine administration. Signup for a given hour on a given day will be needed. Fine details still under construction. You want to get your flu shot this year for sure.
Shingles vaccine is an important vaccine for everyone over 50. It is highly effective. Supplies are finally improving. We are giving the shots in our office and have recently solved the bureaucratic puzzle to get patients Medicare Part D reimbursement. Pharmacies also can administer the vaccine.
Low-dose aspirin appears to have little if any benefit in primary prevention of vascular events in older patients while inducing more frequent serious bleeding episodes based on good recent studies. We will advise many (but not all) of you now taking baby aspirin to stop.
The sinuses are hollow areas in the bones of the face. When the lining is infected, the extra mucus produced causes a stuffy nose, pain in the face and yellow or green discharge. Sinusitis is really common in winter. Most cases are viral.
How We Protect You and Us From Covid-19
A brief review of the multiple ways we work to protect you and our staff in our clinical environment, including improvements in HVAC, aggressive cleaning and PPE, and SARS-CoV-2 antigen testing for patients and staff. These efforts all serve to reduce the risk of passing or acquiring Covid-19 in the OHC clinical office.